Wexford farmers join protestors at Dublin rally

REPRESENTATIVES of the farming community in Wexford travelled to Dublin to attend a national protest event highlighting their displeasure of the implementation of the Fair deal scheme in relation to nursing home care.

Speaking to this newspaper Alice Doyle, from the IFA Centre in Enniscorthy, said the aim of the protest was to raise concerns with the Government over what they say is the unfair way that farmers are being treated under the scheme.

For those outside of the farming sector the scheme is capped at three years which means that while the initial cost of having someone in a nursing home can be challenging there is some measure of reassurance in the fact that after three years the person knows that the cost percentage is capped.

However, for farmers that’s not the case and as has been highlighted in national news recently some farmers are left in a situation where they have to sell off parts of their holdings to cover the cost of keeping a loved one in a nursing home.

The catch 22 for farmers is that the very land they are selling is also the land that provides them with their livelihood.

The Wexford delegation were joined by the National IFA President, Joe Healy, and the organisation’s National Chairperson, Caroline Farrell, at the protest.

‘ The Government has repeatedly said it will extend the cap measures for farmers but so far there has been no action on the matter,’ said Ms Doyle.

She said farmers are faced with a double whammy affect because they are penalised over the land they own which is ‘a productive asset’.

‘If a farmer sells off some land to cover the cost that’s fine but then they are left with the situation where they don’t have that land to generate income for their family,’ she said.

Ms Doyle also said that farming at present is not that viable an industry to be involved in and that those working within the sector are just looking for fair implementation of the scheme.

The Wexford delegation were also joined at the protest by James Browne TD.

At the IFA Farm Family protest outside the Department of Health, in Dublin’s Baggot Street: Orna Darcy, Joe Healy, national president, Alice Doyle, Nicholas Sweetman, Marie Redmond, Mary Murray, Bernie Murphy, Anne Kehoe, James Browne TD, and Mark Brown.